Accident Scene

A Baltimore police officer putting flares around an accident on Interstate 83 was seriously injured early yesterday when he was struck just north of the city line by a man suspected of drunken driving, police said. Officer Jeffrey Nathan Soule, 47, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with fractured legs and head injuries. He was in serious but stable condition last night, a hospital official said. The motorist who police say struck him, Andrew Colin McCord, 25, of Westminster, was charged with drunken driving, state police said.

A Baltimore County volunteer firefighter was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center Tuesday morning with serious head injuries. County police say he had been struck on the head by a falling tree limb at an accident scene in Cromwell Valley. Michael Murphy, 22, who has worked since 2008 as firefighter for the Montgomery County Fire Department, was wearing full turnout gear, including a helmet, and was conscious and breathing when he was flown out. He was treated and released from the hospital within hours of his arrival.

An Anne Arundel County circuit judge, distressed by a driver's decision not to return to the scene of a fatal pedestrian accident to see what her van had just hit, refused yesterday to go along with a defense request for a sentence that could lead to erasing the criminal conviction."

Two beams on the southbound Interstate 95 bridge spanning the Baltimore Beltway will need to be replaced following Monday afternoon's crash involving an oversized piece of construction equipment. Engineers conducted structural tests overnight and determined that two of three beams over the shoulder of the interstate were damaged by the arm of an excavator being hauled from a nearby construction site, David Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration, said Tuesday. "The exterior beam is going to be replaced, probably next spring, there's no doubt about it," Buck said.

A nurse at Mercy Medical Center was charged yesterday with fleeing an accident and other traffic violations after Baltimore police said she cut off an MTA bus, forcing its driver to swerve into two parked cars and plow into the hospital facade.Two bystanders, Lisa Harris and Karen Rayfield, said they ran after the 1985 Toyota Camry as its driver sped away from the accident at Calvert and Saratoga streets and into the hospital's parking garage a half-block away.The Camry collided with the bus, damaging the car's left front fender, police said.

Southbound traffic headed to the Harbor Tunnel slowed Monday morning after a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles blocked the left lane of Interstate 895, according to a Maryland Transportation Authority Police spokesman. Medics responded to the collision, reported just past exit 12 at about 7:20 a.m., but the injured declined treatment at the scene, said Sgt. Jonathan Green of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. The right lane and shoulder remained open, he said, and the scene was cleared by 7:51 a.m., although traffic continued to be slow after that.

A Maryland State Police trooper assisting at an accident scene was struck and killed on U.S. 50 near Bowie early yesterday by a van whose driver was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, authorities said. Tfc. Anthony Jones, 50, was helping another trooper along eastbound U.S. 50 near Freeway Airport about 2 a.m. after an accident, said Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman. Jones was removing a wheel from a car that had crashed from the roadway when a 1986 Volkswagen van struck him, he said.

Maryland State Police believe an accident that killed two people yesterday morning in Gambrills was caused by the aggressive behavior of two drivers - one of whom died when he lost control of his car and slammed into two other vehicles. Troopers said they would display a message board this morning at the accident scene, on Route 32 near Interstate 97, urging witnesses to come forward if they have information about the accident, particularly about the second driver. Sgt. Thornnie Rouse, a spokesman for the state police, said speed and unsafe lane changes led to the 6:50 a.m. accident, which tied up traffic for more than three hours.

A Severna Park man, returning home from a golf game with Toronto Blue Jays players yesterday morning, veered off Montgomery Road and slammed into an Ellicott City home, police said.Officials said Greg Fudge, 39, of the 100 block of Old Country Road was driving his Isuzu Trooper east when he lost control and swerved across the yellow line about 10 a.m.Fudge, who escaped serious injury, plowed through two fences, NTC ran over several bushes and crushed a small oak tree before hitting the corner of the two-story home, police said.

The 53-year old Bethesda woman Ray William Wolfrey killed in Clarksville in his third drunken-driving incident last year "was at a high point in her life," her brother said during an emotional two-hour sentencing Friday in Howard County Circuit Court. Mary Elizabeth "Liza" Valenzuela was a senior expert on international microfinancing programs, and helped people across Africa, Asia and Latin America learn to operate small businesses with very small loans, her brother, David Valenzuela, told Judge Diane Leasure.

Southbound traffic headed to the Harbor Tunnel slowed Monday morning after a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles blocked the left lane of Interstate 895, according to a Maryland Transportation Authority Police spokesman. Medics responded to the collision, reported just past exit 12 at about 7:20 a.m., but the injured declined treatment at the scene, said Sgt. Jonathan Green of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. The right lane and shoulder remained open, he said, and the scene was cleared by 7:51 a.m., although traffic continued to be slow after that.

A 53-year old Columbia man was sentenced to six months in jail for hitting an 82-year-old woman in a crosswalk last November and then leaving the scene of the accident. James Walden Beaman Jr., of the 6300 block of Rainbow Span, which is near the accident scene, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Lenore Gelfman to 18 months in jail, with all but six months suspended. He also must complete 500 hours of community service and two years supervised probation on convictions for failing to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk and leaving the scene of the accident, said Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for State's Attorney Dario Broccolino.

An audio recording of an interview the Florida Highway Patrol conducted with Tiger Woods ' neighbors after the star golfer's automobile accident early last Friday morning was obtained Thursday by the Associated Press through a public records request. Troopers interviewed Jarius Adams , who called 911, and his sister, Kimberly Harris . Harris told troopers that Woods' mother, Kultida , and mother-in-law, Barbro Holmberg , were at the scene. The AP could not independently confirm that the two women were present.

There are words for unlicensed towing companies that prey on injured motorists and charge exorbitant fees to redeem a wrecked vehicle. Unscrupulous or scurrilous will do. These predatory towers have been known to charge as much as $1,000 to release a car that's been involved in an accident. That's 100 times the legal rate for towers summoned to the scene by police. Baltimore Councilman Robert W. Curran has introduced legislation to discourage predatory towing. His bill would withdraw a driver's right to call whomever he or she wants and allow only towing companies that have city-issued medallions, motor clubs and insurance companies to respond to an accident scene.

City Council members are trying to stop renegade towing companies that they say arrive at accident scenes and take advantage of motorists who don't know that only a handful of towing firms are licensed to handle such incidents. These "predatory towers," as critics refer to them, monitor police scanners and sometimes arrive at the scene of a fender-bender even before the officers do. They ask motorists if they can tow their disabled vehicles and then charge insurance companies hundreds of dollars more than the licensed towers, whose fees are capped.

A Baltimore County volunteer firefighter was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center Tuesday morning with serious head injuries. County police say he had been struck on the head by a falling tree limb at an accident scene in Cromwell Valley. Michael Murphy, 22, who has worked since 2008 as firefighter for the Montgomery County Fire Department, was wearing full turnout gear, including a helmet, and was conscious and breathing when he was flown out. He was treated and released from the hospital within hours of his arrival.

A car carrying six people slammed into a tree yesterday morning on a Towson residential street, killing an adult and a child and sending four other people to area hospitals, Baltimore County police said.nTC The accident happened shortly after 8 a.m., as a Ford Thunderbird was going down a hill south on Hillen Road approaching heavily traveled Goucher Boulevard, near Calvert Hall College. The car veered off the right side of the road, clipped bushes and crashed head-on into a birch tree.None of the victims has been identified.

A 26-year-old woman has been convicted in a hit-and-run accident in East Baltimore in 2004 that killed a 49-year-old woman who was walking across the street, city prosecutors said yesterday. Keionna Baker of the 12600 block of Water Spout Lane in Owings Mills was convicted by a jury Monday of leaving the scene of an accident in which serious injury occurred, said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for the city state's attorney's office. She had been charged with vehicular manslaughter. Baker is scheduled to be sentenced Sept.

A mock disaster exercise at the Carroll County Regional Airport won high marks for efficient and effective responses to multiple perilous incidents. But the drill made apparent communication gaps among the county's police, fire and emergency services agencies. "People arrived and reacted as their training dictated," said Maj. Thomas H. Long, chief of the Field Services Bureau for the Carroll County Sheriff's Department. "But the one point of weakness was the lack of communication between agencies."